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Event 509

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 9am - 1pm
Venue: Meet at Box Office

Visit Andrew and Rachel Giles’ farm to see how their herd of dairy cows produce most of their milk from grass. Visitors can enter the milking parlour and help to milk some of the cows, as well as see the young calves. Learn how the cows are fed and find out how their four stomachs enable them to digest grass. Samples of dairy products will be provided for tasting and a cheese maker will demonstrate their craft. A minimum age of eight years is required to take part in this walk.

Event 260

Why The History of Science Matters

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 10am
Venue: Oxfam Moot

Science sometimes looks like a rather forbidding activity, carried out behind closed doors by mysterious, white-coated individuals, speaking their own incomprehensible language. But at the most basic level, the quest to understand the world around us is a fundamentally human activity. Science belongs, and has belonged, to all of us – and we all have a responsibility for it. That is what the history of science shows – and that’s why it matters very much indeed. Morus is the author of The Oxford Illustrated History of Science.

Photo: Marie Curie

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Event 261

JRR Tolkien’s Beren and Lúthien

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 10am
Venue: Baillie Gifford Stage

We are delighted to launch the next instalment in the ‘three great tales’, which began with The Children Of Hurin, painstakingly pieced together by the author’s son, Christopher. Tolkien began work on the story in early 1917 when he returned from the Somme. Set in Middle Earth, at the heart of the tale is a love story between a mortal man and an immortal elf, seen as the precursor to the Aragorn/Arwen story in the Lord of the Rings. The illustrator Alan Lee has created some iconic Middle-Earth imagery, and worked on the Peter Jackson films, for which he won an Oscar.

Event 262

Herefordshire’s Home Front in the First World War

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 10am
Venue: Good Energy Stage

Herefordshire in 1913 was an old-fashioned shire under the benevolent rule of the Church and the gentry. Its bishop was opposed to war and his successor was opposed to women’s suffrage. Many of its farmers refused to plough on a Sunday: many more regarded women as being incapable of farm work. By 1919 the shire was in mourning for more than 4,000 men, had employed 4,000-plus women in munitions factories and another 2,500 on farms. It had deprived more children of a proper education than any other English county.

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Event 263

Welcome to Hay

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 10am
Venue: Llwyfan Cymru – Wales Stage

Amid the number counting and hysteria about the refugee crisis, the voices of those who have fled conflict and persecution can be lost. Join us for readings from women across the world who have sought protection in the UK and learnt English with the British Red Cross in South Wales, where they have been writing about their experiences from the point of departure to their arrival in Britain.

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In partnership with The British Red Cross

Event HD55

Sunk!

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 10am
Venue: Starlight Stage

Penguin and his friends from Blown Away are back in a new adventure, and this time they’re pirates. While sailing the seven seas in search of treasure, Captain Blue and his friends are unexpectedly sunk. But with a shipwreck to explore and a mysterious stranger on a desert island to meet, they might still find some treasure after all. Join Rob Biddulph for story-telling and drawing.

3+

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Event HD56

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 10am
Venue: Cube

Come and experience this uplifting and immersive show about a refugee child and the extraordinary power of kindness. The show is produced especially for Hay Festival by Hereford College of Arts and Open Sky Theatre Company, working with writer Nicola Davies to adapt for stage her poem, The Day War Came.

9+

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Event W43

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 10am
Venue: Mess Tent

Are you a budding chef or curious in the kitchen? Learn how to cook interesting food from all over the world with the Kitchen Academy using recipes from a different culture every day. You don’t need to bring anything other than your tastebuds and your appetite...you are cooking lunch!

Age 4–7

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Event W42

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 10am
Venue: Scribblers Hut

Jemma Westing is an award-winning book designer and paper engineer. Her new book, Out of the Box, is packed full of amazing things to make from recycled cardboard. Join her to make and decorate your own cardboard-tube owl.

Age 7-12

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Event 264

Would the Real Thomas More Please Stand Up?!

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 11.30am
Venue: Tata Tent

Who was Thomas More, the author of Utopia? The distinguished historian of Tudor England parses the propaganda and More’s writings to read behind the myth. He examines the ways in which More’s legacy has been contested or resisted. And he suggests which aspects of his thought are likely to continue to influence the world in the future.

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Event 265

Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 11.30am
Venue: Oxfam Moot

Elizabeth Jane Howard (1923-2014) wrote brilliant novels about what love can do to people, but in her own life the lasting relationship she sought so ardently always eluded her. The biographer examines the life of the author of The Cazalet Chronicle, her marriages to the naturalist Peter Scott and the novelist Kingsley Amis, as well as her turbulent relationships with Cecil Day-Lewis, Arthur Koestler and Laurie Lee. Cooper’s biography depicts a woman trying to make sense of her life through her writing, as well as illuminating the literary world in which she lived.

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Event 266

Cambridge Series: The Future of Organ Transplantation

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 11.30am
Venue: Baillie Gifford Stage

The consultant transplant surgeon reviews how organ transplantation is being transformed by innovations in organ donation, stem cell technology, bio-engineered tissues and machine perfusion of organs. He explores what is now possible and discusses the ensuing ethical and legal dilemmas.

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In association with Cambridge University

Event 267

The Apple Orchard: The Story of Our Most English Fruit

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 11.30am
Venue: Good Energy Stage

Taking us through the seasons in England’s apple-growing heartlands, Brown uncovers the stories and folklore of our most familiar fruit. An orchard is not a field. It’s not a forest or a copse. It couldn’t occur naturally but it demonstrates that man and nature together can create something beautiful.

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Event 268

Good News is No News

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 11.30am
Venue: Llwyfan Cymru – Wales Stage

Environmentalists are good at scare stories; but is a diet of doom and gloom turning people off? Would it be better to inspire people with positive news? Or would that fail to win headlines in a media that still follows the old adage, ‘If it bleeds, it leads’? Pilita Clark, Financial Times Environment Correspondent, Sean Dagan Wood, Editor of Positive News and Futurologist Mark Stevenson talk to Forum for the Future's Martin Wright.

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Event HD57

Beetle Queen

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 11.30am
Venue: Starlight Stage

Would you eat an insect? Try it out for yourself at an amazing event with M.G. Leonard, author of Beetle Boy, discussing the inspiration for the book including entomophagy – the practice of eating insects – which features in it. Entomologist Dr Sarah Beynon of The Bug Farm will explain why eating and farming insects could be the future of food, whilst Andy Holcroft of Grub Kitchen cooks up yummy insect bites live on stage for Leonard to eat.

9+

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Event HD58

Creating Characters: a Drawing Workshop

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 11.30am
Venue: Cube

Join the Australian Children’s Laureate to learn how to draw three of his crazy but lovable characters: Mr Chicken, Old Tom and Horrible Harriet. He will also teach budding young artists how to create their very own characters.

6+

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Event W46

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 11.30am
Venue: Mess Tent

Are you a budding chef or curious in the kitchen? Learn how to cook interesting food from all over the world with the Kitchen Academy using recipes from a different culture every day. You don’t need to bring anything other than your tastebuds and your appetite...you are cooking lunch!

Age 8–11

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Event W44

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 11.30am
Venue: Scribblers Hut

Westing is an award-winning book designer and paper engineer. Her new book, Out of the Box, is packed full of amazing things to make from recycled cardboard. Join Jemma to make and decorate your own cardboard-tube owl.

Age 7-12

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Event W45

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 11.30am
Venue: The Storytelling Nook

So many things we take for granted, such as having access to basic services like electricity, remain a significant challenge for millions of people in today’s developing world. Come and find out how solar power works and can provide clean, reliable energy around the world with Chris Jardine, a leading mind in off-grid solar energy, conducting research with the Oxford Environmental Institute’s Lower Carbon Futures team.

Event DT21

Early Lunch

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 12pm
Venue: Relish Festival Restaurant

Book a seat in the Relish Festival Restaurant and receive a complimentary drink on us.

Enjoy a delicious meal from our Festival Restaurant buffet. Choose from a wide selection of hot and cold dishes created fresh onsite by our team of chefs using the best local seasonal produce.

Come up to the buffet and choose as much as you like from all the dishes on offer for just £20 per person. By booking online you will receive a complimentary glass of wine, bottle of beer or soft drink. You will also be able to reserve a seat in the restaurant where our team will be waiting to give you a warm welcome.

Award-winning Alex Gooch breads and water are free for every customer.

A selection of desserts and local cheeses from Neal's Yard Creamery is also available, plus a full bar and barista coffees.

Event 269

The Beauty and the Horror: Searching for God in a Suffering World

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 1pm
Venue: Tata Tent

Life is at once wonderful and appalling, beautiful and horrific. How can we live with this contradiction? And how can we believe in a just and loving God in the face of all the evils of the world? Lord Harries was Bishop of Oxford for 19 years.

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Event 270

Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd, 1917

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 1pm
Venue: Oxfam Moot

Between the first revolution in February 1917 and Lenin’s Bolshevik coup in October, Petrograd was in turmoil – felt nowhere more keenly than on the fashionable Nevsky Prospekt, where the foreign visitors and diplomats who filled hotels, clubs, bars and embassies were acutely aware of the chaos beneath their windows. Rappaport draws upon the diaries and letters of these international witnesses, to carry us right into the action: to see, feel and hear the Revolution as it happened.

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Event 271

Travelling Light: Journeys Among Special People and Places

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 1pm
Venue: Baillie Gifford Stage

The campaigner, publisher and wanderer has spent his life travelling: “The richer our imaginations, the richer our travel experience. We British do things one way and the Spaniards another; there are unlimited ways of doing everything. Kindness is found in unexpected places, as is eccentricity. Eccentrics are an endangered species and need as much protection as does the house sparrow.”

Event 272

The Nature of Brexit: challenges and opportunities for wildlife and farming

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 1pm
Venue: Good Energy Stage

In 2016 over 50 organisations came together across the UK to produce and publish the second State of Nature report. It shows that the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. The long-term future of farming is at stake if the natural systems on which it is based are depleted. Our panel looks at what the next 30 years could look like if the natural environment was placed at the centre of farming policies post-Brexit. Poet Martin Daws will open and close this event.

Event 273

Fictions: Survivors

Wednesday 31 May 2017, 1pm
Venue: Cube

With its taut narrative and its wincingly visceral portrait of a man locked in an uneven struggle with the forces of nature, Jones’s Cove is a powerful new work from one of the most distinctive voices in British fiction. Jufresa’s Umamiis a quietly devastating novel of missed encounters, missed opportunities, missed people, and those who are left behind. Compassionate, surprising, funny and inventive, it deftly unpicks their stories to offer a darkly comic portrait of contemporary Mexico, as whimsical as it is heart-wrenching.

The Mexican writer Laia Jufresa is selected for Hay 30 – celebrating a new generation of thinkers, supported by the CASE Foundation